Brazilians search for luxury cars

10 April 2013

RIO DE JANEIRO: Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Range Rover are among the most-searched for luxury auto brands in Brazil, a study has found.

The Digital Luxury Group, a research firm, looked at more than 300 brands in six key segments (fashion, beauty, jewelry, cars, watches, and hospitality), and analysed 20m online searches to create a ranking of the country's most-searched for luxury brands.

It found that there had been a 24% increase year on year in the net amount of search activity related to such high-end products among web users.

Seven of the top ten searches were for were car manufacturers. Ferrari, Porsche and Volvo joined Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Range Rover in this group. Nearly half of searches for luxury brands and products were for cars, and this sector also registered the greatest growth over the previous year, at 68%.

Other fast-growing sectors included beauty on 49% and watches on 34%. Jewellery also improved by 18%, as did fashion by 9%. Hospitality actually logged a 1% dip, however.

The top non-car brands were MAC Cosmetics, in third place, Chanel in eighth and Armani in tenth.

Florent Bondoux, the Digital Luxury Group's head of strategy and intelligence, noted that Brazilian consumers had "massively turned to online channels to stay on top of luxury trends".

"Effectively harnessing such an online frenzy represents a key differentiating factor and growth accelerator for global luxury brands in Brazil," he added.

Some patterns were apparent within individual sectors, with, for example, sports cars like the Buggati Veyron, and SUVs, like the Range Rover Evoque, leading the 50 most-searched for car models.

Perfumes and make-up drove the beauty sector, where MAC Cosmetics alone accounted for 38% of searches.

Within watches, there was a marked preference for men's and sports timepieces, with TAG Heuer, Rolex and Omega particularly prominent.